Tuesday, 27 June 2017

Hi All
I don't know about you, but I seem to have had to make loads of baby congratulations cards just recently. There seems to have been a bit of a baby boom amongst my acquaintances.
With that in mind I had a bit of a mad finishing off session so that I now have several extra cards in my stash.

This first card was made for one of the boys at work who became a Dad for the first time recently.

The Boss asked me to make a special card with the baby's name on it. He likes to give cards like that.

I think this fabulous Stampendous stamp has become one of my favourites for making Baby cards, for both girls and boys.

And of course there are plenty of left over bits which can be added to a card,

or used up to make a smaller one.

This easel card uses another lovely Stampendous stamp.
It was sent across the pond to a blogging buddy who became a Granny recently. A special occasion to be celebrated just as much by the proud Grandparents as the Mum and Dad.

I hadn't realised that I had made quite so many cards, so I think I will share some more of them tomorrow before I bore you to tears.
Have a great evening.
Hugs Kimx

Monday, 26 June 2017

Hi All,
It's Monday again! I don't know where this year is disappearing to.
I don't know about you, but I had a wonderful weekend, even better for the nice cool breeze which made it so much easier to cope.
Saturday saw another lovely class at Davina's, playing with all of my Hobby Art stamps...... and boy do I have a lot of those lol.
I took them all (minus the Christmas ones at least), along with assorted inks, dies, embossing folders and samples, and we spent the afternoon playing and consuming copious amounts of coffee and biscuits. No pressure, just fun.
Sunday saw more fun and playtime, this time with the bundle of cuteness that is my youngest Granddaughter Emma.

The day started with me watching her at her swimming lesson, which she loves, and ended with roast dinner at my Mum's where Emma helped 'PatPat', as she affectionately calls her Great Grandma, plant and water in the garden while her Mum and I prepared and cooked Roast Lamb and masses of veg. Altogether a wonderful day was had by all.
Here are just a couple of the samples that I took with me to class on Saturday.

This card uses the fabulous large tree stamp and some masking which is very unusual for me. I teamed it with a leaf veined embossing folder and some gilding wax.

I love this large tree stamp and here I teamed it with decorating chalks blended onto a piece of dark blue card stock.

The embossed tree really stands out against the background although it is rather difficult to photograph as you can see.

This one uses the foliage from another of the newer stamp sets.

And here is another very similar sample made with the leftover stamped panel.

This card uses a combination of foliage, masking and background stamps along with a swirly sentiment.

And here are a couple of photos of Emma helping 'PatPat'

Emma is definitely an out doors girl, she loves to plant and water,

and is so cute when you ask her what her plants need to survive........'water, sunshine and love' complete with arm gestures.

She certainly earned her pudding after all her hard work, and as you can see she thoroughly enjoyed it lol.
Thanks for stopping by. Have a great evening.
Happy crafting and hugs.
Kimx

Tuesday, 20 June 2017

Afternoon Everyone,
We have a brand new challenge over at CraftyCardmakers, and given the weather at the moment it is a very appropriate theme, Here Comes Summer.

Whenever I think of Summer I always think of flowers and bright colours. Lots of yellows and oranges which goes very well with the scorching hot sunshine that we are having at the moment.

I confess that I am struggling at the moment with the heat. I've had a couple of days holiday with the intention of catching up on some 'crafty' things, and all I've managed to catch up with is some lying down. I'm quite looking forward to going back to 8 hours of air-con at work tomorrow.

The stamped panel on my card was created using a piece of 'Bleedin Art Tissue'. This is a fabulous product to create multicoloured backgrounds. Crumpled up pieces of the coloured tissue are thrown into a plastic bag and spritzed with plenty of water.
The colours bleed into one another to create the most amazing backgrounds. Once dry I attached a piece to some pale orange card stock using sticker sheet.
The colour of card that you layer the tissue paper onto can affect the overall colour of the background. It is also a great way of using up those yukky colours that you will never use, but that are such a waste to throw away.

I painted the squares around the flower and leaves with thin bleach which removed most of the colour, and then I added glossy accents to the rest of the stamped image. The floral stamp used is an old Magenta one, and the sentiment is from Hobby Art.

As usual I tried to use up the whole sheet of the tissue paper background and the scraps of coloured papers.

Here I used a Stampendous Daisy stamp. This time I painted the flower centers with bleach and the petals with Glossy Accents.

More Stampendous Daisies here, and left over scraps from my Bits Box.
I also added some black peel-off corners and squares and faux stitching with a fine black pen.

I think that my computer must have been suffering from the heat as well, since it wouldn't even allow me to access the Internet yesterday, let alone write a blog post.
I hope that you will find the time to join us in our new challenge, and share some love HERE with the rest of the team.
It is thankfully a little cooler here today, there even seems to be a bit of a breeze, so I am hoping that I might get something crafty done this afternoon.
Perhaps it should be commenting while my computer is still playing the game. I have been very naughty of late when it comes to visiting all you lovely people.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Monday, 12 June 2017

I know that Christmas seems to get earlier each year, but seriously.........May?
Of course there was a very special reason for it's rather early arrival in my house, sample making for the new release of Woodware stamps due very soon.

Of course I can't share them with you yet, so here are some that I made a while ago using stuff from my Christmas 'bits box'.

I remember doing a demo for Janice and Andy at SirStampalot, many years ago, using a Speedball Brayer, Kaleidacolor ink pad and Magenta Christmas stamp set.

I adore demoing at shows, but you always seem to end up with hundreds of pieces all very similar.

I never like to throw anything away, so these have lain unused in my Christmas Bits Box for quite a while.

Some of the pieces of background have been spritzed with water and then covered with screwed up cling film to achieve this wonderful 'frosted' look.

Others were spritzed with thin bleach to give a wonderful mottled effect.

I managed to find some co-ordinating card stock to mount the trimmed panels onto and added some background stamps and sentiments along with a bit of Glossy Accents.

I spent a very successful weekend finishing off more Christmas cards, so I will have plenty more cards to share with you soon.

Monday, 5 June 2017

I feel like I must have been living under a rock.
For the second time I arrived at work to be greeted by newspaper headlines of an atrocity carried out in the UK. First Manchester, and then London (again)
It sounds ridiculous, and appalling that I should not know what is going on in the world, but to be honest I never have the news on (it's always too depressing) so that is my very poor excuse for being so ill informed.

I can't begin to imagine what all those poor families are going through, nor do I have the words so here is a card that I send with love to one and all.

The background is from my stash and was made, as far as I can remember, using pearlescent inks and cling film.

I stamped and embossed onto the handmade background paper using an old Hero Arts stamp which I love.

The panel was cut out using a rather interesting torn edged die.

The woven background on the card has been created from Washi tape stuck onto strips of white card to make it possible to weave.
I added a couple of circular spotlights and a sentiment from Hobby Art.
I hope that tomorrow will be a better day for all of us and that I can avoid any more awful headlines.
Love and hugs to you All.
Kimx

Friday, 2 June 2017

Evening All
Wow, Friday again. I might have know that it would be hot this afternoon, because it's the first time I've been able to get to the gym in over a week.
I know that we shouldn't complain about the weather, I was getting very fed up with being cold at work, but I seriously can't cope if its too hot. Thankfully we ended up with a massive thunderstorm which has cooled things down just nicely.

I thought that I would share a few floral cards with you tonight.

These all use a bit of paper piecing,

which is a nice easy way to create several cards at once.

I don't like to make the same card twice so they are all slightly different.

And of course this image works every bit as well with some plain old watercolouring.
Let's hope it's nice and bright but not too hot tomorrow, I don't have air con at home and I need a couple of days away from work to recharge my batteries.
Hugs Kimx

About Me

I am a self confessed 'Stampaholic' living with my family in Surrey.
I am known as the 'Granny in the Attic' and have six Grandchildren
Megan(17), Reece(15), the twins Saskia and Ciaran(10), Emma (2) and Chloe born October 2017.
I work full time in a BP Simply Foods petrol station and then craft in
my spare time.
I have written two books. The first on Teabag Folding and the second on
Rubber Stamping, both for Search Press.
I have written numerous articles in the past for magazines including Craft Stamper, Quick Cards Made Easy and Cardmaking and Papercraft.
I teach classes in Purley and have
demonstrated at many of the major Stamp Shows.
I am on the Design Team for Woodware and Hobby Art, and have also designed for Imagination Stamps, Stamp Addicts and Clarity. Several of my cards have featured on each of their TV shows.
I am lucky enough to make samples Jane Gill who still designs stamps for Woodware who are now part of Creative Expressions.
I love to try and join in with the challenge blogs and have been part of the DT at
Crafty Cardmakers for several years.